Crafts of caring: Guild creates ‘security blankets’
Smyth County
News
Thu Oct 30, 2008 - 01:08 PM
By DAN KEGLEY/Staff
You can hear all sorts of sounds in a church fellowship hall, from the
sounds of singing to the murmur of conversation over a meal. On Monday
afternoon, there was quiet conversation among a few women at one table and the
pulsing whir of a sewing machine at another in the fellowship hall of Marion’s First United
Methodist Church.
On tables throughout the room lay bolts and scraps of fabric, and a dozen
crisply folded quilts nearby suggested their imminent use.
Members of the Marion
quilt guild have been working hard all month to make these crafts of caring.
They meet monthly at the church to share patterns and techniques and
conversation. But this month, they met four times in a special project—making
security blankets for Project Linus.
If you recognize the name of the Peanuts cartoon character, you already
understand something about Project Linus and the desirability of security
blankets like his.
Or more elaborate ones like the quilts being made, since quilting opens up a
world of creativity far beyond the simplicity of Linus’ blanket.
Tina Graham is a member of the guild and the director of the Marion/Smyth
County chapter of Project Linus, a non-profit organization with chapters across
the country.
“The guild has been very supportive of Project Linus,” Graham said. The group
elected to support the organization as its annual community service project to
which the members devote one meeting each year. That meeting was Monday, but it
took all the Mondays of the month to get ready.
In that time, they have produced about two-dozen quilts. “They’re very
prolific,” Graham said of the quilters.
The quilts are given to comfort people in hard places in their lives, Graham
explained. “They’re not just needy economically, but facing some kind of
crisis.
Project Linus has strict requirements for the blankets it accepts. They must be
handmade as opposed to mass-produced, for example, and made in a smoke-free
environment. They can be knitted, crocheted, quilted, made of fleece, or
quilted.
While some of the Project Linus blankets are donated to people as random needs
arise, Graham meets constant demand at two local agencies.
“I committed to giving fleece blankets to adolescents at the state hospital,”
Graham said. “Every adolescent gets one. They have 200 admissions a year.
That’s a lot of blankets to keep them supplied with. That’s an ongoing
project.”
Her organization also provides blankets to the local department of social
services for foster children, she said. In both situations, the blankets stay
with the children beyond their treatment or foster care.
Graham expected the number of quilters to grow from the afternoon’s nine to
three times as many Monday evening. They temporarily swelled the ranks of
quilters working on behalf of Project Linus, boosting the output of Graham’s
usual cohort of 15 volunteers, including a group based at Cedar Bluff
Baptist Church.
Additional help comes to Graham each year from Virginia Tech where about 20
collegiate 4-H members make blankets.
The local chapter of Project Linus started three and a half years ago, and
Graham took it over from founder Angela Dunn three years ago. After this round,
Graham said, she will have donated about 300 blankets.
“It’s been a real commitment to keep the state hospital supplied,” Graham said.
“I’m always looking for volunteers to make blankets.”
Graham said donations from individuals are also appreciated and are used to buy
fabric and other supplies. That’s how grant money from Walmart is used.
And Sew What Fabrics in Wytheville and the Marion quilt guild donate fabric to Project
Linus, she said.
To learn how to contribute or join Project Linus, contact Graham at
.
